1. Field of Invention
The invention relates to wiring of information circuits, and particularly to a wiring layout of information circuits provided at one working location, e.g. telephone and computer connection circuits provided in one room or one floor of a building, or in a whole building.
2. Description of Related Art
As a method for wiring the information circuits of information device terminals, such as telephones, personal computers and the like, in an office or other working location, it is known to connect the terminals with collective information handling devices, such as telephone switchboards, LAN units and the like, by aggregating the information circuits of the respective information device terminals.
FIG. 6 shows wiring in such an office. The office is divided into a plurality of blocks, such as department units or section units. One or more people work at each block. Information device terminals, such as telephones, personal computers and the like, are arranged on desks constituting the respective blocks A to F, and the information device terminals are connected via wire harnesses 1 installed at each block A to F to an interconnection unit 3.
The wire harnesses 1 are composed of the bundles of circuit cables, having connectors 2 equipped with modular outlets at one end. The various information device terminals are connected to the wire harnesses 1 through the connectors 2. The use of bundled wire harnesses in buildings is disclosed in JP-A-8-33 1734, published Dec. 8, 1996.
The interconnection unit 3 is equipped with a plug board 4 shown in FIG. 7, which has a primary side and a secondary side. The modular outlets 5 connected to the collective information handling devices such as telephone switchboards, network servers and the like are arranged at the primary side, while the modular outlets 6 installed on the respective circuit cables of the respective wire harnesses 1 are arranged at the secondary side. Connecting cables 7 equipped with modular jacks at both ends are connected between the respective outlets 5 at the primary side and the respective outlets 6 at the secondary side, whereby the respective information device terminals are connected in the desired manner to the fixed collective devices.
With such wiring, when a layout in an office is changed, for example, when the block A is replaced by the block B as a whole, changing of the connection positions of the connecting cables 7 in the plug board 4 enable the wiring of the block A to be exchanged with the wiring of the block B without renewing the laying of the wire harnesses 1.
However, in such a conventional wiring system, as only sequential numbers are usually attached to the respective outlets 5, 6 of the plug board 4, it cannot be identified which blocks of which information device terminals the modular outlets 6 at the secondary side are connected to by inspecting only the plug board 4 at the time of a layout change.
Therefore, a layout table in which sequential numbers attached to the respective modular outlets 6 at the secondary side correspond with the information device terminals is usually prepared, and the work of exchanging the connecting cables 7 is done by inspecting the layout table. When there are large numbers of the modular outlets 6 in use on the secondary side, the modular outlets 6 must be searched relying on the sequential numbers, but it is troublesome to find the modular outlets 6 whose connection is to be altered. Further, when there is no layout table at hand, there is an inconvenience that it cannot be identified which blocks of which information device terminals the modular outlets 6 are connected to.
Since the connecting cables 7 connecting the primary side to the secondary side are usually all the same, independent of the kind of the collective device, in the plug board 4, there is an inconvenience that it is difficult to identify which collective information handling devices the modular outlets 6 at the secondary side are connected to.